Grassroots
These days Sweden is a member of the EU, and whatever we may think of that, we can't deny that our lives and conditions are increasingly connected to what occurs outside of Sweden's borders.
When the big companies move abroad, when jobs are cut to appease the "Market," when fighting inflation is more important than fighting unemployment, these are processes that affect our lives in Sweden. But they are also international, global, processes
.
- The onslaught of neo-liberalism can't be stopped by us in Sweden saving just our own jobs or by us voting in another government.
Based on that realization, a European network called
”the European Marches against Unemployment, Social Exclusion, and Racism has developed”.
with 20 million unemployed and 50 million poor..
The network struggles for some demands that potentially could change all this:
- A radical cut of working hours, a guaranteed income so that those without any pay can lead a dignified life, abolishment of different measures that punish the unemployed and abolishment of the discrimination of youths, immigrants, and women.
The activities of the European Marches have above all been about mobilizing the unemployed and the "Left" (in the loose sense) to demonstrations in connection with EU summits..
- Amsterdam in 1997, with about 50,000 participants, and
- in Cologne in 1999, with about 30,000 participants.
The next large mobilization is planned for
- Nice in December, 2000..
SAC-Syndicalists is one of many organizations that will co-operate within the European Marches network to make sure that the Heads of State in the EU won't be able to forget about the conditions of ordinary people in a neo-liberal Europe.
